Madness
by Ca'diem
Summary: Fox is driven insane by the deaths of his friends and a war with venom is slowly grinding Lylat into dust. When a new foe threatens Lylat and Venom alike, who can stand up and lead?


**Madness**

Chapter 1

Revelations

**Achtung:** I do not own any Star Fox characters, or locations. I do own basic story line details and any characters I create.

Fox looked at the small group of animals cowering in the corner of the freighter. It was a rather small craft, not designed for transporting refugees but poorer captains had been offering space for people trying to escape from the recent troubles. The freighter captains largely took advantage of their passengers but nobody cared, they were expendable. A small child began to cry and his mother quickly tried to hush him.

"Stop crying," Fox said flatly. The child continued to cry. "I said, stop crying!"

"He's just a child!" the woman shrieked, tears streaming down her dirty face, carving rivulets in the dust.

"Get out of my head!" Fox's face turned startlingly from menacing to sudden horror as one who has had to watch his loved ones being killed. Fox fell to the ground and began whimpering. The child started crying again. Fox stood up, no sign on his face of having been on the floor only moments earlier, he walked calmly over to the child and picked him up.

"I told you to stop," Fox stated calmly. The child's mother threw herself at Fox's feet and began to claw futilely at his legs, making a small mewling sound all the while. Fox threw the child against the wall. The small form hit the wall with a sickening crunch sliding limply to the floor. One of the other refugees threw up noisily. The woman looked on in horror and let out an unearthly shriek, Fox kicked her until she stopped moving.

"What is it?" Fox asked in response to some unasked question, cocking his head as if to listen to a voice no one else could hear. "I told him to stop, he wouldn't stop crying." A pause. "It's not my fault." He said nervously, licking his lips. Another pause. "Who are you to judge me!?" he bellowed angrily. At this last he let out a howl and fled the freighter to his own ship. His crew filed into the freighter to collect the loot, leering at the refugees and siphoning the remaining fuel leaving the remaining passengers to float adrift in space…

- - -

Fox sat in his private room on a dirty freighter, rocking slowly. He was crying softly and muttering to himself.

"Dead, all dead. Everyone I ever loved. All dead. Dead. Dead." His fist clenched on the greasy sheets and began to recite the names as he had done so many times before. "Peppy, Pepper, Slippy, and… Krystal," he choked on the last one and began crying harder.

- - -

Jex, a ferret, stood outside Fox's door, listening to the sound of Fox's crying with the ship's cook, Hons, a boar.

"I'm not going in there," Jex said simply.

"Well someone has to get our course setting; we need to know where to go next." The sounds of crying suddenly cut off, followed by a high pitched growling and quick shuffling. Jex shot Hons a significant look and took a deep breath reaching out for the keypad to open the door.

The door quickly opened and Fox's coiled muscles propelled him like a spring into the hallway and on top of Jex. Fox snarled and bit into Jex's arm, Jex letting out a frightened yell, before recognizing his second in command. Jex cradled his injured limb and slowly stood, watching Fox warily, as Fox picked himself off the floor, assuming a normal voice.

"What is it you wanted, Jex?"

"I just wanted to know our next heading, sir."

"Take us to Sector X. If there is a response to our recent attacks against the shipping lanes we'll want a good place to take cover."

"Yes sir."

- - -

Falco sat at his desk looking at the envelope in his hands. It contained a letter from Commander Teylin. Teylin was a well known war hero, in charge of the Hellfire Battle Group. She was acclaimed for her exploits commanding the small group against much larger forces in the current war with Venom. Falco didn't know what she could want with him; he hadn't flown since the war began. Ever since the surprise attack which killed most of the Star Fox Team and General Pepper and started the war, the Lylatian military had been like a snake without a head: striking out blindly and strangling anything it came into contact with. The war had been unfolding for the past six years and had no sign of stopping anytime soon, with no leader, each admiral, general, and battle group commander had been fighting their own war with little to no support or supplies. Often a fleet had to resort to piracy to stay in action; the military that was supposed to protect its citizens had become as bad, or worse than the pirates and Venomians.

The Lylatian war effort had become desperate with debt growing, pirates in control of much of Lylatian space, the lack of organization had even led to battle groups stumbling into each other and exchanging blows before realizing what they were doing. The Venomians started out the war severely outgunned but the lack of leadership of Lylat, lead to some spectacular Venomian wins early on and now the forces were evenly matched. The tactics were distinctly hit-and-run, with small agile fleets attacking fringe outposts and essential supply points. Lylat itself had fallen into primarily military rule with various battalions fighting local crime lords and each other for control of the planet. Trade had, for the most part, ground to a stop with goods moved by either small, fast blockade runners, or huge convoys too well armed to attack. Falco sat pondering what had happened to the time of prosperity he had grown to love and whether there was anything at all to be done about it.

- - -

Teylin sat steepling her fingers and pursing her lips in thought. She was not a patient lion. Falco was supposed to come in ten minutes ago and she was very worried that he wouldn't show up. This meeting could possibly decide the direction of the war and the fate of the Lylat system.

To her great relief Falco strode through the door and sat unceremoniously in a chair. Teylin was a bit put off by Falco's rudeness but this meeting was too important for her to show him proper manners.

"Why did you call me in Teylin?" Falco began abruptly.

"Because I need your help."

"And why is the Great War Hero asking humble Falco for assistance? I don't suppose you want a boy toy?"

"No," she replied curtly. "This is about the war actually."

"I don't want any place in the war; it's not mine to fight."

"Actually, I would have thought that you'd want to fight for your deceased friends at least," she prodded, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't bring them into this," Falco rebuked, hurt by the blow.

"Can I count on you?"

"Maybe."

"Good."

"Why is that good?" Falco queried.

"Because now you're committed to hear me out at least."

"You're a sly one, woman. Let's hear this thing you're so urgent to tell me."

"As you know, the Lylatian military is leaderless and we're slowly squandering our resources." She paused expectantly.

"Yeah."

"You have quite a bit of combat experience yourself, more than most officers."

"Mm-hmm," Falco grunted suspiciously.

"I want you to take command of the Lylatian Navy. All the officers want someone to follow but no one is willing to take the risk, you could-"

"I'm not a leader; I don't have the temperament," Falco interjected. "Besides, an unwilling leader is an ineffective leader. Even with an effective commander the Navy will still be a collection of individuals too used to fighting their own war to bend knee to a superior. You'll have to get some other fool to be your figurehead." With that he stood up and left, leaving the door swinging behind him.


End file.
